Cannot shutdown and other symptoms

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Recently my Win10 laptop has started to not shutdown. I usually just let it sleep, so I don’t know for certain when it started. (I’m at 21H2 and just allowed the October update, though the problem was discovered before that.) Restart and shutdown seem to spin forever. Eventually, shutdown may end up in sleep mode instead. I’ve had some success with running shutdown /s /f /t 0, but not today. (Fast startup is not on.) I’ve run dism & sfc and all is well. A full scan with Windows Defender is clean.

Possibly related symptoms: File explorer does not update on it’s own (for example, I’ll delete a file and it is still listed until I refresh with F5.) Also, the fan is running full speed all of the time (Core Temp lists the temps between 81 and 95 C — I don’t think that’s terribly hot, but not sure any more.)

Last detail: it’s an old machine that shipped with Win7. It’s due to be replaced, but Win10 has been running on it quite well for many years.

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See if this thread has anything useful.
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/laptop-does-not-sleep-when-close-lid/

If the fan is running hard, check Device Manager to see what is running. My guess is Windows is updating something and can be very slow – up to 24 hours. Maybe leave it on for a day and see if it settles?

cheers, Paul

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I think you  mean Task Manager.

Regards, Phil

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Paul T

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Do you have fast startup enabled?

Years ago I had an issue where my laptop wont shut down, instead it rebooted

Some laptops aren’t made for fast startup.

Just someone who don't want Windows to mess with its computer.

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Yes, Fast Start is off. (At least the checkbox in the GUI is empty.) Thanks.

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Your temps are very high, almost to the point where the computer shuts down to prevent CPU damage. (Tjmax) (Hey, that would make a good name for a store!). Time to “pop the cover” on your laptop and clean the fan of dust, pet hair and other crud, and make sure it rotates freely.
Zig

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Steven

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Thanks for the info. Core Temp says Tj. Max is 100 C, so yeah, 90 is getting up there. I’ll add cleaning the dust to my list. Meanwhile, I did get a normal shutdown, once. When I checked on it everything was cooler and after restarting the fan was behaving: speed up a little, slow down again. Maybe accumulated dust and running 24 hours trying to shutdown got things hot.

Also, after that normal shutdown, my file explorer (and desktop) issue–where nothing refreshed without pressing F5–fixed itself. All I did was powercfg -restoredefaultschemes, which selected something called “unbundle” that I have not seen before. I fiddled with some settings and a Restart ran for 20+ minuites before I gave up and forced shutdown. But the next power up is the one time the Shutdown worked. Now it’s not working again.

I’m going to tackle the dust issue next. Maybe it’s just heat? (That would be embarrassing.)

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I cleaned out the laptop, though it was surprisingly clean–just a very thin layer of fine dust on surfaces. It turns out that this laptop (an old HP Pavilion dv7-6c95dx) has heat pipes between the fan housing and two chips (CPU & ?). So any fins must be inside the fan housing? But it’s all clean inside now, and the fan housing received a good dose of air to clear the fins that must be inside. Everything turns freely. The filter screens on the bottom are all clean for incoming air to get to the fan. I don’t see temperatures higher then the low 70s C now and the fan has yet to crank up to the flat-out speed I saw before. A video I found showed removing the MB and replacing the thermal paste between the chips and the heat pipe. Is that a real thing? (Well, the old beast is about 11 years old.)

Since this, Start>Restart and [command line] shutdown usually work, but Start>Shutdown seems to fail. And then there is the File Explorer refresh problem. It has worked sometimes (copying a file to the desktop, saving from a program to the desktop, etc.) but then it will stop, requiring F5. Is it time for “Reset this PC”?

And yes, I’m in the market to replace the old friend, but I’d really like to get this sorted–call it an educational experience.

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check your energy configuration MAYBE, something went wrong.

Just someone who don't want Windows to mess with its computer.

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What happens if you kill (Taskmanager) Explorer and restart a new one?

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You can replace the paste, but given it’s now running cooler I suggest you do nothing – can’t get it wrong then.

Try fixing the shutdown issue with a DISM / SFC run. If that doesn’t work, look for updated motherboard drivers from the manufacturer’s website.

Check system integrity. In an elevated command prompt, run the following:
DISM /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
sfc /scannow

cheers, Paul

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Coldheart9020

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Shutdown seemed to work today (at least the command line version) so it’s sporadic (or magically fixed itself). I ran dism/sfc and it found and corrected something (and nothing apparent in the CBS.log it sends me to–maybe some owned twice entries, but nothing much else). The big symptom at the moment is explorer. I still need to press F5 to see any file changes, either in a window or on the desktop. In task manager, two curiosities: While doing nothing, “Windows Explorer” is running at 18% of CPU and “Very high” power usage. I tried to kill and restart it and the desktop went blank but the task remained in task manager. Tried to start explorer.exe and nothing happens.

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Poked around about windows explorer using a lot of CPU. Ended up disabling all non-Microsoft services and <magic> no more problems. I then enabled them in groups until all that remained disabled was Dropbox. Funny thing: re-enabling Dropbox didn’t bring my symptoms back. Nevertheless, since I have not used Dropbox for a few years, I uninstalled it. Right now everything is running great: all shutdown and restart paths work, changes on the desktop and in File Explorer windows refresh properly, and Windows Explorer is back at <1% CPU.

Now, what was Dropbox actually doing to me? No idea. I think I’ll let that one go.

Thanks to everyone to popped in with ideas!

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Coldheart9020, Fred

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windows10.0-kb5019959 may help

* _ ... _ *

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Why may it help? Details please.

cheers, Paul

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Nearly a week and my antique PC is still purring. I guess Dropbox was somehow hammering Windows Explorer and a bit of dust in the fan allowed it to heat up more than it should. Thanks for the responses.

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